Born in Cori (Latina) on June 4, 1655, Thomas knew a childhood marked by
the premature loss first of his mother and then of his father, thus being left
alone at the age of 14 to look after his younger sister. Shepherding sheep, he
learned wisdom from the simplest things. Once his sister was married, the
youth was free to follow the inspiration that for some years he had kept in
the silence of his heart: to belong completely to God in the Religious Life of
a Franciscan. He had been able to get to know the Friars Minor in his own
village at St. Francis convent. Once his two sisters were settled in good
marriages and he was rendered free of all other preoccupations, he was
received into the Order and sent to Orvieto (PG) to fulfill his novitiate year.
After professing his vows according to the Rule of St. Francis and completing
his theological studies, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1683. He was
immediately nominated vice master of novices at Holy Trinity convent in
Orvieto, since his superior recognized at once his gifts.

After a short time, Fr. Thomas heard of the hermitages that were beginning to
bloom in the Order and the intention of the superiors of the Roman Province to
inaugurate one at the convent at Civitella (today Bellegra). His request was
accepted, and the young friar thus knocked at the door of the poor convent in
1684, saying, "I am Fr. Thomas of Cori, and I come here to become holy!"
In speech perhaps distant from ours, he expressed his anxiousness to live the
Gospel radically, after the spirit of Saint Francis.

From then, Fr. Thomas lived at Bellegra until death, with the exception of six
years in which he was Guardian at the convent of Palombara, where he initiated
the Hermitage modeled after the one at Bellegra. He wrote the Rule first for
one and then for the other, observing it scrupulously aid consolidating by word and example the new
institution of the two Hermitages.

The long years spent at Saint Francis of Bellegra can be summed up in three
points:

Prayer

St. Thomas of Cori was surely - as is said of St. Francis - not so much a man
who prayed as a man who became prayer. This dimension animated the entire life
of the founder of the Hermitage. The most evident aspect of his spiritual life
was undoubtedly the centrality of the Eucharist, as attested by St. Thomas in
his celebration of the Eucharist, which was intense and attentive, and in the
silent prayer of adoration during the long nights at the Hermitage after the
Divine Office, celebrated at midnight. His life of prayer was marked by a
persistent aridity of spirit. The total absence of sensible consolation in
prayer and in his life of union with God was protracted for a good 40 years,
finding him always serene and total in living the primacy of God. Truly, his
prayer was configured as a remembrance of God that made concretely possible a
unity of life, notwithstanding his manifold activities.

Evangelization

St. Thomas did not close himself up in the Hermitage, forgetting the good of
his brothers and sisters, and the heart of the Franciscan vocation, which is
apostolic. He was called with good reason the Apostle of Sublacense (the
Subiaco region), having crossed the territory and its villages with the
indefatigable proclamation of the Gospel, in the administration of the
sacraments and the flowering of miracles at his passage, a sign of the
presence and nearness of the Kingdom. His preaching was clear and simple,
convincing and strong. He did not climb the most illustrious pulpits of his
time; his personality was able to give its best in an ambit restricted to our
territory, living his Franciscan vocation in littleness and in the concrete
choice of the poorest.

Exquisite charity

St. Thomas of Cori was to his brothers a very gentle father. In face of the
resistance of some brothers before his will to reform and his radicality in
living the Franciscan ideal, the Saint knew how to respond with patience and
humility, even finding himself alone to mind the convent. He had understood
well that every true reform initiates itself.

The considerable correspondence that is here annexed demonstrates St. Thomas'
attention to the smallest expectations and needs of his Friars, and of
numerous friends, penitents and Friars who turned to him for his counsel. In
the convent, he demonstrated his spirit of charity in his availability for
every necessity, even the most humble.

Rich in merits, he fell asleep in the Lord on January 11, 1729. St. Thomas of
Cori shines among us and in Rome, of which he is the co-patron, above all in
his thirst for a Christian and Franciscan ideal that is pure and lived in its
essentials. A provocation for all of us not to take lightly the Gospel and its
all-encompassing exigencies.